OT: Apartment for sale. Only 1.59 million.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by packs

Apartment prices always seem reasonable in Manhattan until you look at the HOA fees. You take out one mortgage to buy the apartment and another to keep up with the monthly charges.

Interesting thing is that technically it is not a mortgage. It is a chattel financing statement. You are purchasing stock in the corporation that owns the building and 'leasing' the apartment. I have worked on a few of them in Mass. and D.C. Part of the Watergate complex in D.C. is a co-op. Ruth Bader Ginsberg lived there.

It is the co-op board (stockholders -occupants of the other apartments) that decide whether you can live there.

[packs]

I didn't mean it was an actual mortgage, just that you're practically paying a second one forever when you buy an apartment in NYC. On the surface, the price to buy the apartment seems pretty reasonable. There are lots of apartments for sale for three to five hundred thousand dollars. But the HOA fees will eat you alive and they'll never end.

[bmattioli]

I would voted no as well. I'm a Redsox fan..

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by packs

I didn't mean it was an actual mortgage, just that you're practically paying a second one forever when you buy an apartment in NYC. On the surface, the price to buy the apartment seems pretty reasonable. There are lots of apartments for sale for three to five hundred thousand dollars. But the HOA fees will eat you alive and they'll never end.

I knew what you meant. I thought those who were not completely familiar with co-ops might be interested. I find that co-ops are not that common outside of NYC. I am sure most people would think condo when they hear apartment. Condo fees and HOA fees are also never ending. Not counting 'special assessments' for additional repairs or unforseen expenses that inevtiably pop up.

When I bought my house last year I was insistent that it would not be in a subdivision with an HOA and there are a lot of those here in VA. I don't want someone telling me what I can and cannot do with the property I own. If I want to metal detect on my property I will. It is part of a Civil War battlefield and the topography is the same as it was in 1863 along a line of battle 300 yards from Confederate trenches.

[JeremyW]

I can understand why you wouldn't want to live next to Olivia Skenes, but I would not have voted against it.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Michael B

If I want to metal detect on my property I will. It is part of a Civil War battlefield and the topography is the same as it was in 1863 along a line of battle 300 yards from Confederate trenches.

Oh man, if I lived on a site like that, I'd have a newfound love of long walks in the woods...

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Oh man, if I lived on a site like that, I'd have a newfound love of long walks in the woods...

There are 25 acres of woods next to my property that sit between the Union and Confederate line. Three battlefields right here with hundreds of acres of woods available for walking. A lot of it is National Park Service land, but not the land next to mine.

[ValKehl]

Michael, do I correctly assume that you are referring to the First and Second Manassas battlefields in Prince William County near the City of Manassas?

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Michael, do I correctly assume that you are referring to the First and Second Manassas battlefields in Prince William County near the City of Manassas?

Val, no, I live on the Chancellorsville battlefield off of Plank Rd. Part of the first days battle. The side of my yard, which is 600' long, faces the Confederate rifle pits on McLaws Drive. All of the Chancellorsville and Wilderness battlefields are within 4 miles of my house. Spotsylvania Court House battlefield is about 5 miles away.